Manchester City could offer West Ham United a player/s to try and land Lucas Paqueta.
The Citizens are eyeing a move for the Brazilian, but face a big task actually signing him.
West Ham don’t want to sell the player this summer.
They have already lost the likes of Declan Rice, Gianluca Scamacca and Manuel Lanzini this summer.
Paqueta is one of their best players, and with the season about to start they would be really reluctant to lose him now.
But money talks, and City have a lot of it.
But it is now being suggested that City could actually seek save a bit of money, by including players in a potential deal for Paqueta.
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Manchester City could offer player/s for West Ham star Lucas Paqueta
Yesterday afternoon Romano provided some more information about City’s pursuit of Paqueta.
He says that there is now contact between the two clubs.
City’s £70 million verbal offer has been rejected. But West Ham are aware of Paqueta’s desire to join the club.
Romano then adds something quite interesting: “Told including players in the deal could be an option to be discussed soon.”
Certainly, there are a number of players in the City squad that could potentially be included in a deal.
Kalvin Phillips surely the most likely
The first player that springs to mind about a possible player being offered by City is Kalvin Phillips.
The 27-year-old has featured very little for City since his arrival last year from Leeds United.
Some have expected him to leave after just one year. But so far it’s been a bit quiet on him in terms of transfer speculation.
But perhaps City will want to use him to help them land Paqueta, who has been described as having ‘unreal skills’ by his Hammers teammate Vladimir Coufal.
West Ham lost Declan Rice earlier this summer and he is a player they might be interested in. Although they are also reportedly looking at Scott McTominay.
It would be a good move for Phillips as he would definitely play regular football again.
It would definitely be a clever move to offer a player plus cash for Paqueta, whose £85 million release clause does not kick in until next summer, meaning West Ham are free to demand a higher fee than that if they so wish.